'Dangerous': Sox ride 5 HRs, Cease's 11 K's 

CHICAGO -- If there was a prototype for how a championship-caliber squad should look on the field, then the White Sox showed it during a 13-1 victory over the Cubs Sunday afternoon before 38,565 fans at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Granted, it was against a bad Cubs squad whom the White Sox (76-56) took five of six from this season. But it was the same Cubs team that scored 13 on the American League Central leaders Friday and shut them out on Saturday. Then again, the opponent probably won’t matter when the White Sox play such a complete game.

“Everybody on this team knows that we can do what we did today,” said center fielder Luis Robert Jr. through interpreter Billy Russo. “That's our goal and our mindset, just go out there and do our best and do what we did today. That's something that we all know that we can do, and that's the quality of this team."

“That was awesome,” said starting and winning pitcher Dylan Cease. “It doesn’t matter who it is, but at the end of the day when you can do it against the Cubs, too, it’s definitely a little added bonus.”

Robert and Cease played featured roles in this dominance. Robert launched a solo home run in the first and a two-run blast in the sixth, standing as his second career multi-homer game (also on Aug. 17, 2020 vs. Detroit). Since returning from rehabbing his right hip flexor tear, Robert has five homers, five doubles, 13 RBIs and 16 runs scored in 16 games. He also catches everything in sight defensively, and some drives not thought possible for a mere mortal.

“I try to catch every ball I can get to,” Robert said. “I want to catch all of them.”

Cease struck out 11 over six innings and 108 pitches, limiting the Cubs to a Frank Schwindel homer in the fourth. The right-hander has eight career double-digit-strikeout performances and seven this year, while fanning 21 over 11 innings in two starts against his original organization.

“The old Earl Weaver thing, the momentum every day is the starting pitcher,” manager Tony La Russa said. “And what Dylan did early, and then he really wanted to get all the outs in the sixth even though he was getting up there for pitches, shows that he's growing every time he goes out there. He set the tempo as far as getting outs and our hitters were dangerous."

“My stuff is sharp, my command is as good as it’s ever been in my career right now,” said Cease, who had 17 swings and misses and topped out at 99.7 mph, per Statcast. “I’m ready to just keep taking the ball every fifth day.”

A seven-run fifth, all coming with two outs, turned a 3-1 advantage into a blowout. Cubs ace Kyle Hendricks walked César Hernández and hit Robert with a pitch to load the bases, before José Abreu drove home two with a double to center.

Abreu’s drive had an exit velocity of 107.2 mph, per Statcast, and although it was not played well by Rafael Ortega, it produced his 100th and 101st RBIs of the season. Abreu’s Major League-leading RBI total gives him six seasons out of eight with the White Sox (seven full seasons) with at least 100 RBIs. Eloy Jiménez and Yasmani Grandal both homered during that seven-run fifth, while Brian Goodwin’s two-run shot in the second completed the White Sox five-homer barrage.

“In the fifth there, I just kind of got out of rhythm and just made a lot of bad pitches,” said Hendricks, who allowed eight earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. “Really, before that, one bad pitch to Robert there in the first inning. And after that I was executing really well. I felt good about everything. And then, yeah, in the fifth, too many bad pitches.”

“You want to talk about stats -- you pick teams that get runs with two outs, almost always they have a high winning percentage,” La Russa said. “It’s a commitment that you make and we do that routinely. We don’t always score, but we routinely go after it.”

Sunday’s victory improved the White Sox to 15-12 in August, clinching their seventh straight winning month as part of their longest streak since a nine-month run from June 1993-August 1994.The next clinch will be the division, and if the White Sox play as they did Sunday, there might be more to come.

“In general we’re a scary team,” Cease said. “Our pitching is pretty incredible and our offense, especially as of late, has been nothing short of spectacular. We’ve just got to keep gaining ground going into October.”